After a few weeks of searching, I finally made a friend today. He's a small guns companion, whose stats don't seem all that bad (from what I've been able to test). In order to figure out some of his stats, and what weapons he should use I ran into some questions. Since this is my first companion, and it's a new feature (a fantastic one, I might add), I'm hoping someone with more experience may have some insight.
How do they select what weapon to use if they have several in their inventory?
First I gave him an assault rifle, and all went well. However, he ran low on ammo, so I gave him a mauser to hunt with. When combat was over, he would put the mauser away, and re-equip the assault rifle even though he was out of ammo. When combat began again, he would spend his first few turns putting the Assault Rifle away, and getting the mauser into the fight.
For a little bit I thought maybe it depended on what weapon I gave him first. So I took all of his weapons away, and gave him a 10mm SMG. I told him to arm himself, and he equipped it. Then I gave him his mauser back, and a 14mm pistol. I told him to put his weapon away, and when I told him to arm himself... he equipped the 10mm SMG.
However, when the time came to shoot some molerats, he equipped the mauser again. As soon as combat ended, he went back to the 10mm SMG.
So I think what is confusing me, is that I'm unsure if there is any way to get him to use one weapon as his "Primary", and one as a "Secondary". Because it seems to me like he has a preference for the mauser, even though I would rather he use it as a backup.
Is it random? Does it go based on deterioration? Ammo count? Range, AP, or ST considerations? Does it matter what order I give him the weapons, or what he equips out of combat?
FWIW, all weapons were 100/100, and I even tried giving him the same number of rounds for each weapon.